Pianist, composer and improviser Roberto Negro brought his enchanting creation Newborn to La Filature in Mulhouse, then to the Théâtre de Vanves . This is nothing less than the unprecedented encounter between the trio of improvisers he forms with Michele Rabbia (electronics, percussion) and Nicolas Crosse (double bass) and a chamber ensemble made up of musicians from the Ensemble intercontemporain. 

Against an ochre backdrop of packing cartons, set off by lighting effects, the bodies of a dozen or so musicians gathered around pianist Roberto Negro at the Théâtre de Vanves on December 15, for this new performance of Newborn. Newborn is a short hour of music, set to light and space by Caty Olive (lighting design), with a poetic flair that enchants from the very first minutes. The light sets the scene: it gently surrounds the musician who opens the composition, the horn player from the Ensemble Intercontemporain, soon joined by Michele Rabbia on electronics. Throughout Newborn, the light accompanies the musicians' speeches and conversations. The light "composes" and accompanies the musical discourse, becoming language and speech in its own right. 

Conversation is probably what best defines the music of this Newborn to my ears. Dialogue between two or more voices, but always in an intimate setting, as the composer is proposing a world of chamber music, even if Newborn offers several superb tutti moments.
Dialogue between a trio - the one formed four years ago by pianist Roberto Negro with drummer/percussionist Michele Rabbia and double bassist Nicolas Crosse (of the EIC) - and the Ensemble intercomporain, which brings together two trumpets, a horn, a flute, a clarinet, a cello, a chromatic harp and a vibraphone.
Dialogue between acoustics and electronics - the trio musicians are augmented by electronics. Last but not least, a dialogue between improvisation and composition.

Newborn is a piece of writing: the scores are there, but the musicians of the EIC play a text of a particular nature, which has little to do with the complex scores they are often confronted with. We can only imagine the pleasure these musicians derive from playing Roberto Negro's music, which is above all lyrical, instinctive and sensual.
The play on complexity is not located in the usual place. If there is complexity, it lies in the back-and-forth between writing (score) and improvisation (spontaneous expression). For this kind of playing demands fluidity, precision and mutual listening!
In this respect, it's obvious that Roberto Negro listened to the musicians in the ensemble, and solicited improvisations from those for whom this practice is familiar, even if it remains marginal. The most experienced of the Ensemble intercontemporain's musicians (apart from Nicolas Crosse) is undoubtedly cellist Eric-Maria Couturier , who launched into a magnificent, rough and wild improvisation.
The trio is not to be outdone: Roberto Negro and Michele Rabbia's improvisations are other highlights of this Newborn: freedom and poetic imagination are at work, veritable spurts that electrify the discourse, making it "reborn"(Newborn). We only regret that double bassist Nicolas Crosse doesn't take the floor more, whose improvisations were once captured by theA l'Improviste microphones during the Intersessions of the Ensemble intercontemporain. His double bass can sing and shout freely!

What's striking about Newborn's music is its relief, its taste for contrasts and ruptures: beautiful melodies are often interrupted by saturated, crushed sounds, wild and rough electronics, all captured in the fluidity of the writing: a game of chiaroscuro, superbly highlighted by Caty Olive.
The other great quality of this singular Newborn is that it's a music that doesn't betray itself, doesn't seek to "sound contemporary". We find here, intact, the very qualities of Roberto Negro's universe: his taste for lyricism - a melodic sweetness close to that of Ravel - and its antidote: breaks, toy-piano and music-box sounds, saturated and noisy sounds. A hybrid, organic music that would be hard to classify as jazz (jazz), and that's just as well! A music of spells (Ravel again... ), that plays the chameleon, and leaves us dreaming, in the good sense of the word. Because Newborn is enchanting!
We can only hope that Newborn 's promising music will develop into even more hybrid and free.

Anne Montaron

Photos © EIC